The Film:
Josh Boone's Stuck in Love revolves around how life experience shapes the way we look at and interpret the world, so it's fitting that the story would begin and end on the same holiday, showing how a family -- comprised mostly of writers -- have changed their perspectives over a year's time. Bookended by scenes of fixing Thanksgiving dinner with noticeable differences in how they do things, we're treated to a story of how relationships lost and rediscovered weigh on our consciousness while attempting to move forward, and how these experiences aren't something easily abandoned with time. Staleness and blunt sentimental catharsis populate Boone's meandering voyage through flirtation, divorce, and coping with terminal illness, as this family breaks down the walls of their emotional comfort zones in unsurprising ways. The richness of the characters and the performances that give them life elevate this dramedy beyond the mundane, though, opening the door for genuine expressiveness at certain moments.

Currently experiencing the later stages of divorce where he's expected to move on and, sure, potentially get remarried, semi-famous author William Borgens (Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine) finds it difficult to let go of his ex-wife, Erica (Jennifer Connely, Requiem for a Dream), due to their history and his "fated" connection to her. Since the circumstances of their split weren't exactly conventional due to Erica's involvement with another man, it created a rift with their burgeoning writer children: Rusty (Nat Wolff, Admission), their younger son who's dealing with crushes and popularity in high-school, has weathered the ordeal, but their brainy and sexually promiscuous college-aged daughter, Samantha (Lily Collins, Mirror Mirror), still hasn't forgiven her mother. Stuck in Love becomes all about how the Borgens handle new relationships and experiences post-divorce, from Rusty's first encounters with a flawed damsel in distress (Liana Liberato, Erased) to the nice guy, Lou (Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, attempting to crack Samantha's cynical exterior. While Bill's children explore things beyond their comfort zone, can -- or should -- he finally move on, too?

Excluding the mother, every member of the Borgens family are either aspiring or accomplished writers, which inherently makes Stuck in Love about internalized literary-minded people who use their work as an outlet for distress. While getting intimately involved with three different creatives, who share common experiences and professional goals, does offer some interest by allowing the family an easy way to talk shop and empathize, writer/director Boone also inescapably limits the film's versatility by doing so. Professional jealousy, frustration, and success rely on Rusty and Sam being the ambitious children of a successful author, despite Boone's conscientious script thinking a few steps ahead to legitimize their connections. It forces the audience to roll with the explanation that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but despite pseudonyms and phone call cameos from Stephen King designed to convince otherwise, the film conveniently uses this hereditary talent for effortless drama, robbing the Borgens' story of some authenticity.

There's more to Stuck in Love's characters than their talent with words, though. While their creative endeavors never leave the spotlight -- Sam's publishing an autobiographical book; Rusty's flirtation with his crush sparks over a poem; Bill can't write due to his obsession with Erica -- it's also simply about how an intelligent, emotionally-convoluted family gets "unstuck" out of the individual ruts created by their family's divorce, leading everyone to push themselves through unusual decisions. Boone's partly-autobiographical story isn't prone to subtlety, where themes involving drug addiction, terminal illness, and infidelity lead to anticipated emotional outcomes condensed into one family's world. That said, the sharply-written reactions from the characters leave those emotional arcs feeling more poignant than cliched, building a foundation for their perspectives as writers as they explore the newness of falling for someone, as well as an inability to let go when the time's right. It's unreservedly expressive without being overtly comedic, making it hard to deny the somewhat insistent tenderness in Boone's depiction of parental squabbles and necessary makeovers.

An incredibly talented cast works to justify that they've got the type of mental headspace of writers with something to say, taking up Boone's own way with words and lending some emotive honesty to their occasionally wry dialogue. Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly offer nuanced, persuasive renditions of their expected talents as the forlorn ex-spouses, while a quirky and honest bit of comic relief from Kristen Bell enlivens Kinnear's persona as a down-the-street housewife (and occasional sex buddy) who cares for Bill's well-being. The real victors are their kids, though: Nat Wolff convincingly handles the territory of a socially uninvolved high-schooler who gets wrapped up with a party girl, the area where most of the film's autobiographical content resides, while Lily Collins embraces the mental state of a confidently cynical, promiscuous college student with lifted emotional barriers and unyielding spite for her mother. Collins shares a great rapport with The Perks of Being a Wallflower's Logan Lerman, solidly realizing the nice-guy literature student chipping away at Samantha's harsh exterior.

Once everything comes full-circle at the next year's Thanksgiving dinner, however, Stuck in Love leaves one thinking about how the Borgens' year of growth plays out, and how everything wraps up in this otherwise respectable domestic dramedy. Plenty of monumental things happen in that time period for the family to ponder, while director Boone maintains the illusion of time passing as they weather their various hardships in different ways: Samantha's cynicism, Rusty's sensitivity, and Bill's enduring affection for his wife. Yet, it's hard not to feel frustrated with the surprisingly upbeat chain of resolutions to their various issues that all happen to fold into that very day, ending with a schmaltzy bow tied at the end. For a film with such casually authentic characters like the Borgens experiencing a complex emotional tangle, it seems like the final chapter to this indie cares more about pleasing crowds than digging its heels in with the family's emotional state.

The Blu-ray:

Video and Audio:
Not a stitch out of place to be found with this 1080p AVC transfer for Stuck in Love, but enthusiasts will probably be a little miffed at the framing, sporting an open-matte 1.78:1 aspect ratio instead of the 2.35:1 intended letterbox ratio. They'll especially be a little disappointed when they see exactly how beautiful the film ends up being on Blu-ray: granted, the Arri Alexa-shot digital cinematography innovates little with its standard dramatic-comedy lighting and blocking, but the depth, color balance and richness, black levels, caliber of detail, and range of motion are, quite simply, next to flawless. Fine details in garments and facial hair elevate the visual treatment with crisply-rendered textures, while the colors in eyes and the flush in skin tones never leave the film's myriad close-ups. This is standard photography rendered right, and if it weren't for a few instances of very mild digital grain and the aspect ratio discrepancy, it'd absolutely be perfection.

I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about the 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track, which rarely sounds much better than a mediocre stereo treatment. Nearly the entire film sits at the front of the surround stage, with a very small number of surround elements making an effort to travel to the rear channels. That wouldn't be a bad thing if the upfront content were at least consistently stable, but it's not: certain instances of dialogue are delightfully rich and aware of front-channel separation, while others are dreadfully muffled and strained within the center channel. It's a struggle to imagine any noteworthy sound elements that might boost its rating: the clapping of rain on a windshield are suitably crisp and atmospheric, while spashing water by the beach creates enough atmosphere to be admirable. Altogether, though, the track lets the robust visuals down. English and Spanish subs are available.

Special Features:
An Audio Commentary with Josh Boone and Nat Wolff comes in as the first half of a two-punch extra features combo, featuring the director discussing the autobiographical nature of the film, getting it produced, and some of the rewrites Boone did after some feedback with the film's bigger stars. It's a track that's less about following on a scene-by-scene basis (though it does touch on specific elements occasionaly), and more about sitting back to listen to Boone's story about building the film from the ground up. I especially liked the comment about director Boone turning into Fincher when it came to eating potatoes, as well as Boone's discussion about ADR and never shooting beach sequences again.

Millennium Home Entertainment have also included a Making of Stuck in Love (27:32, SD) features, which can more accurately be described as a stream of edited-together interviews without many actual glimpses at the construction of the sequences. While it's nice to hear Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins and Logan Lerman, and the other cast/crew chat about their experiences with making the film and working with the other actors, it's a very rigid and perfunctory collection of interview stretches. A DVD Copy of the film also arrives in the package, replicating the disc artwork of the Blu-ray.

Final Thoughts:Stuck in Love might be a little stuck in its own conventions, but it overcomes that familiarity with an array of performances alongside writer/director Josh Boone's enthusiastic encapsulation of burgeoning love, rediscovery, and struggle coping with change. Observed through a family of writers ranging from a timid high-school student and collegiate cynic to a obsessive divorcee, the film travels across a year in their lives as they discover varying degrees of catharsis in their current relationships (or lack thereof), becoming more drama than comedy that's not without its persistent brighter tones. This freshman directorial effort gets a lot right in creating flawed, alluring characters with something to say about their respective experiences, and while the film reservedly navigates through obvious emotional trauma that'll fuel the writers' creativity and lust for life, it feasibly conveys their emotional adaptation and exploration through convincing reactions from literary minds. Millennium's Blu-ray looks exceptional enough to make one overlook its sonic issues, and the commentary and interviews provide a nice after-film experience. Mildly Recommended.